The Player Plague

by Lucas Flint

  “Who else could possibly deal with the factory aside from me?” I asked.

  “The Glitch Elimination Task Force,” said Chuck. “I plan to inform them about the Z-Virus factory so they can destroy it themselves. It’s what they do, after all.”

  I bit my lower lip. “I’m not sure the Glitch Elimination Task Force is up to it.”

  “I believe they are,” said Chuck. “Not only is every member of the Force over level one hundred, but they are all skilled players in their own right with specialized training for dealing with glitches. A hidden factory churning out Z-Virus needles en mass would certainly fall under their purview, in my opinion. And I am even more certain they wouldn’t mind taking Atmosfear into custody, either.”

  “But Atmosfear is my enemy,” I said, jerking a thumb at my chest. “I need to stop him myself.”

  “I know all about your personal history with Atmosfear, Nyle, but this is our best option,” said Chuck. “By letting the Glitch Elimination Task Force destroy the factory and capture Atmosfear, we will not only nip the Z-Virus in the bud but also deal with the number one threat to Project Second Life’s continued existence, namely Atmosfear. That is most certainly a two birds, one stone situation, wouldn’t you agree?”

  I bit my lip even harder. I found Chuck’s logic rational, but I didn’t like the idea of being cooped up in my Base for so long. “Will I be stuck in here forever or just until the situation is over?”

  “Once the factory is destroyed and Atmosfear in custody, I will be more than happy to let you out,” said Chuck. “Until then, however, you need to stay here. I hope that you are able to understand why that is.”

  I did, but I still didn’t like it. It meant I would fail my mission, but that wasn’t my biggest issue. My biggest issue was that I wouldn’t be able to stop Atmosfear personally. I still saw him as my enemy and my responsibility. Yes, it wasn’t my fault that he got into the game, but that didn’t matter. He was the first criminal I ever chased as a police officer and I’ll be darned if I am going to let him get away.

  “I see what you mean,” I said, “and I guess it isn’t going to be forever, but I still want to help.”

  “Trust me, you will help immensely just by staying put where you are,” said Chuck, waving at my room. “The less involvement you have in this situation, the better.”

  “I suppose,” I said. “Anyway, how is the cure for the Z-Virus coming along?”

  Chuck grimaced. “Not well, from what I understand. The developers have been struggling to come up with an antidote, not helped by the fact that they don’t actually have a copy of the Z-Virus to study. All they can do is study the bodies of players and NPCs who have been infected with it, but that isn’t the same as studying the actual virus itself, you understand.”

  I nodded, but then stopped nodding as realization dawned on me. “You say they need an actual copy of the Z-Virus to study in order to make an antidote for it?”

  “Yes,” said Chuck. He looked at me curiously. “Why do you ask?”

  I opened my item inventory, picked out the Z-Virus bottle I had taken from the warehouse, and held it out toward Chuck. “Here. Give this to the developers. It’s a strain of the Z-Virus I recovered from the warehouse. They should be able to study it and figure out how to design a cure for it.”

  Chuck stepped backward when I held out the bottle toward him, a wary look on his face. It occurred to me that I didn’t know if Chuck’s in-game avatar counted as a player character like me or if he was just some type of illusion or hologram. Given how he reacted when I held out the bottle to him, maybe his avatar was actually his player character. If so, then he clearly didn’t have a particularly strong imagination, given how it looked just like him (or how I assumed he must look in real life, anyway).

  “Are you sure about that?” asked Chuck. He kept his eyes on the bottle as if it was a snake about to attack him.

  “Positive,” I said. “Don’t worry. I don’t think you’ll get Infected just by touching it.”

  “Even so, I have no intention of coming down with the Z-Virus,” said Chuck. “Luckily, I don’t need to touch it in order to grab it.”

  Chuck held out his hand and then the Z-Virus bottle disappeared from my hand. A notification popped up:

  You have given (1) Z-Virus bottle to [Agent Charles Omar].

  “Thank you for this,” said Chuck. I didn’t see the Z-Virus bottle in his hands, so I assumed it was probably in his own item inventory. “I shall pass it on to Capes Online’s developers as soon as we are done talking. With this sample, they might very well be able to come up with an antidote to the Z-Virus.”

  “I hope so,” I said. “How long do you think it will take them to do that?”

  “I am not sure,” said Chuck. “It all depends on how fast they work and whether the Z-Virus can be used against itself like a vaccine. I will ask them to get to it ASAP, although I have a feeling I won’t need to, given how everyone at SI Games knows the consequences of what would happen if the Z-Virus returns.”

  I nodded. I felt pretty proud of myself for keeping that Z-Virus bottle. Admittedly, I had felt nervous about walking around with it in my inventory like that, but it looked like it was going to work out in the end after all. Assuming, that is, that Capes Online’s developers could develop an anti-Z-Virus vaccine in time.

  “Now, then,” said Chuck. He set his coffee cup down on the air and it vanished into thin air. “With that out of the way, I believe it is time for me to go. But first …”

  Chuck tapped empty air a couple of times and then I got this notification:

  [Hero Winter] denied permission to exit Base. Duration: 24 hours.

  “What?” I said, almost shouting that word. “Hey, man, what gives? I thought you’d let me go after I gave you the bottle.”

  Chuck looked at me apologetically. “Forgive me, Nyle. While I deeply appreciate the help you’ve been so far, it really would be better for you if you stayed here. Your help doesn’t change the fact that you need to stay where you are, at least until the factory is destroyed and Atmosfear is in custody. It’s nothing personal.”

  My hands balled into fists. “See if I ever help you again.”

  “No need to get upset,” said Chuck. “And look, I even gave you a time limit. Of course, it is impossible to trap a player in their Base forever, but I think twenty-four hours should be more than long enough for the Task Force to deal with the Z-Virus factory and Atmosfear.”

  “What am I supposed to do for twenty-four hours?” I asked Chuck.

  Chuck gestured at the blankets lying on the floor at my feet. “Make your bed and perhaps take a nap. I am aware that I accidentally interrupted your sleep. And given how late you stayed up last night, you probably need to catch up on your sleep anyway.”

  “Come on,” I said. “You expect me to just lie around and sleep like I have nothing better to do?”

  Chuck flashed a smirk. “Well, technically speaking, you don’t have anything better to do, now, do you?”

  With a wave and another smirk, Chuck disappeared, leaving me standing alone in my room, feeling both shocked and betrayed by these sudden developments. And wondering if whether Chuck really was as nice as I thought he was.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  Despite the notification I got informing me that the Base was locked, I ran out of my room, jumped down to the base floor of the warehouse, and rushed over to the front door. I immediately wrapped both hands around the doorknob and pulled as hard as I could, straining every muscle in my body to help me.

  But no matter how hard I tugged and pulled, I was unable to make the door even budge. It felt like pulling a mountain, even though it was a simple wooden door that couldn’t have weighed no more than 15 pounds if that.

  As soon as I let go of the doorknob, I got this notification:

  ERROR! [Hero Winter] not allowed to leave Base. Duration: 24 hours.

  Gritting my teeth, I turned around and ran to the back door on the other side
of the warehouse. I pulled on the doorknob, using all of my Strength and then some to force it open, but to my great frustration, the back door was as impossible to open as the front door, earning me yet another notification:

  ERROR! [Hero Winter] not allowed to leave Base. Duration: 24 hours.

  My scowl deepened. Both were basically locked. Which meant that Chuck had locked me in here. The jerk.

  Then my eyes wandered up to the windows above. Normally, I barely paid attention to the windows running along the ceiling of the warehouse because they were too far out of reach for me to do anything about. But now that I had the Snow Cape item, that meant I could fly. Only about ten feet into the air, true, but with a good head start, that would be more than enough for me to reach the windows.

  I took a couple of steps back, squatted down as far as I could, and then jumped into the air as high as I naturally could. At the exact height of my jump, I activated Flight and zoomed up into the air like a bullet toward the lowest window. At the speed I was going, I ought to smash straight through the window and crash out onto the street somewhere outside—

  My face crashed directly into the window. It was like running into a wall. My face didn’t even crack the glass and I fell back down onto the floor flat on my back. The impact rattled my skull and earned me this debuff:

  Debuff added: Dazed. -10% Agility and Dexterity. Duration: 1 minute.

  “Dang it!” I shouted, slamming my fists on the floor in frustration.

  Another notification replaced the debuff prompt:

  ERROR! [Hero Winter] not allowed to leave Base. Duration: 24 hours.

  “DANG IT!” I practically screamed. “Now it’s just mocking me!”

  I heard a door slam open and looked up to see Cy rushing out of his room, shouting, “Boss! I heard someone screaming. What’s going—”

  Unfortunately, Cy had been running so fast that he wasn’t watching where he was going. He hit the railing and flipped over the side of the railing and landed flat on the floor. He was still for like a second before getting back to his feet and running over to me, albeit in a drunken sort of way and clutching the part of his head that had hit the concrete floor.

  “Boss, what’s the matter?” said Cy as he stopped before me. “Why are you lying on the floor?”

  “I hit my head against the window while flying,” I said, rubbing my head as I sat up. I winced at the pain in my back. “Nothing serious.”

  Cy breathed a sigh of relief. “Whew. I thought for sure you were attacked by more ninja again. Turns out you just did what I do all the time. Silly boss.”

  The fact that Cy hit his head against solid surfaces all the time explained a lot, but I rose to my feet and said, “Never mind that. We’re stuck.”

  “Stuck?” said Cy. “Stuck where?”

  I gestured at the entirety of my Base. “In my Base. Chuck locked me in my Base while he sends the Glitch Elimination Task Force to destroy the Z-Virus factory. All exits and potential exits have been locked and can’t be opened at all.”

  “What?” Cy said in surprise. “But if we stay here, we won’t be able to complete the mission!”

  “I know,” I said. “I tried to explain it to him, but he said we needed to stay here for … reasons.”

  I was about to explain the whole politics behind it but realized that Cy, as an NPC and a Sidekick, had no idea about the world outside Capes Online or how it even all worked. Heck, it confused even me. He didn’t need to understand it.

  “Dang it,” said Cy. “I wonder if we can contact the Ninja Guild and let them know we won’t be able to make it tonight? Maybe they’ll be willing to put it off until we can get out of here.”

  “I have no way of contacting anyone from the Ninja Guild,” I said. “Aimi, Riku, and Yamamoto are not in my Friends List. Plus, based on how urgent this mission is, I doubt they would be willing to reschedule it for us. It might not even be possible to reschedule it, depending on how urgent this mission is.”

  “So you mean we’re going to fail?” asked Cy, making big, sad puppy dog eyes. “For the first time ever?”

  “Not unless we can find a way out of here,” I said. “I already tried the front and back doors and the windows, but they’re all locked and have become physically impossible to open, much less destroy.”

  “How about the Basement?” asked Cy. “Remember those five tunnels? Zazoom said they lead into the Sewers. Seems to me that all we need to do is leave through one of those tunnels and see if we can find a way to get back to the surface.”

  I frowned. “Are you sure that will work? The Basement counts as part of this Base. I wouldn’t be surprised if the tunnels had been blocked off as well.”

  “Well, we won’t know until we try,” Cy said. “Can we at least go check?”

  I folded my arms in front of my chest. “Well, I guess it won’t hurt to look. But I wouldn’t get my hopes up if I were you. I doubt Chuck would forget about the Basement.”

  -

  As I suspected, the five tunnels leading into the Sewers were completely blocked off. Before, all five of them had stood wide open, showing nothing but empty darkness beyond their arches. Now, however, each tunnel entrance was blocked off by massive stone blocks that completely filled the tunnel. Even Cy, who was a pretty skinny guy, couldn’t find a gap wide enough for him to slip through.

  “Well,” said Cy as we stood in front of the middle tunnel entrance, my flashlight focused on the smooth stone surface of the block. “I guess they really did think of everything after all, huh?”

  “Yep,” I said, running my hand down the surface of the blocked-off tunnel entrance. I punched it lightly with my fist. “Wonder if we can break it down through sheer force.”

  “Doubt it,” said Cy. “I mean, you’re pretty strong and all, boss, but I have a feeling even Lightbringer wouldn’t be able to break this. You can try, though.”

  I nodded and took a step back. I fired Ice Beam at it, but when the Ice Beam struck the stone blockade, it melted upon impact. When I cut off my Ice Beam, the stone block looked the same as before, showing no sign I had been shooting it at all.

  “So not only is it too thick to punch through, but it is also anti-elemental attacks,” I said. I scowled. “So those designers are SI Games can design an impenetrable and unbreakable stone block, but apparently can’t design a vaccine to a virus they designed without having to reboot the game entirely. Jerks.”

  “Think of it this way, boss,” said Cy with a smile. “At least we don’t have to worry about the Dwellers coming up for a visit. Those guys are creepy.”

  “Maybe so, but we’re still stuck here ourselves,” I said. “What are we going to do for twenty-four hours?”

  Cy gestured at the hundreds of boxes and crates behind us. “We could always look through those boxes for any interesting items. Doesn’t that sound like fun?”

  “No,” I said flatly. “I hate sorting through things. Sally loved sorting things, but—”

  “Who’s Sally?” asked Cy, tilting his head to the side in confusion.

  I was about to call Cy an idiot for asking such a stupid question until I remembered that I really hadn’t told Cy very much about my previous life in the real world. He didn’t know about Sally, my dad, my life as a police officer, or any of that. It seemed weird that I had come to know Cy so well but had failed to tell him very much about my past. Then again, based on some of Cy’s own earlier comments, it was clear I wasn’t the only one hiding secrets.

  “My fiancee from before I became a Hero,” I said without looking at Cy. “We were supposed to be married … before the accident that got me and Atmosfear here, that is.”

  “Oh,” said Cy. “Sorry to hear that. Was she hot?”

  I glared at Cy. “What do you think?”

  Cy held up his hands suddenly. “Okay, okay, I got it. She probably was. I mean, if she looked anything like Recover, who you obviously have a thing for—”

  “When did I say that?” I said, perhaps too quickl
y.

  “Isn’t it obvious?” said Cy. “I see the way you look at her. I know how much her betrayal during the Blackout hurt you.” He put a hand on my shoulder. “It’s okay, boss. If you need someone to talk to, I’m your man.”

  I shrugged Cy’s hand off my shoulder and said, “Cy, I am pretty sure you need to get your eyes worked on. I like Recover as a friend and Teammate. Nothing more.”

  I didn’t really mean that. The fact was, Cy, despite his general klutzy nature, was a lot more perceptive than I originally thought. I did, in fact, have some feelings for Recover, feelings that were a lot deeper than simple physical lust. And he was absolutely right that our fight during the Blackout and her subsequent quitting of Team Winter had hurt me more than I would ever admit.

  But I wasn’t sure if I should develop any sort of relationship with her. After all, Capes Online was my world now. To Recover, this was just a game she played every now and then. I wasn’t sure that I, a digital being, could form a relationship with a physical being like Recover. I didn’t think it would be fair to her, given how different our worlds were. And that was assuming I felt attracted to her, which I had to admit I was. But whether that attraction was just lust or actual love … I wasn’t sure yet.

  My thoughts were interrupted by a loud alarm ringing somewhere above us. Before either Cy or I could respond, a notification appeared before me:

  An Intruder has broken into your Base! Please see Security Camera footage for more information on the identity of the Intruder.

  As soon as I dismissed that notification, a video popped up in my view. It showed the street outside the front door of Warehouse 13 from what appeared to be a few minutes ago. The footage showed that the street was entirely empty save for a stray cat playing with a dead mouse, but then the cat looked up as if it had heard something, picked up the mouse in its mouth, and darted away out of view of the camera.